"Mere luft of change compell'd her to cashier "Her beft lov'd Pompey in his fiftieth year. "The frowns of a capricious jilt you mourn, "Who's thine, or mine, and ev'ry man's by turn: "Were Fortune conftant, fhe's no more the fame, "But, chang'd in fpecies, takes another name. 66 Say, when that prodigy of falfchood fmil'd, "And all the forceress thy heart beguil'd; "When ev'ry joy that full poffeffion gave "Rofe to the higheft relifh man can crave; "Waft thou then happy to thy foul's defire ?-Something to feek, and fomething to require, "Still, ftill perplex'd thee, unforeseen before."Thy draughts were mighty, but thy dropfy more t. [then? "Tis granted, fortune's vanifh'd--and what "Thou'rt ftill as truely rich as all good men : "Thy minds thy own (if that be calm and ev'n); Thy faith in providence, thy funds in heav'n The Indian only took her jingling bells, "Her rags of filk, and trumpery of shells: "Virtue's a plunder of a cumb'rous make "She cannot, and the does not choofe to take ‡. Accept th' inconftant, if the deigns to stay ; "And, if the leaves thee, fpeed her on the way; "For where's the diff 'rence, mighty reas'ner, S jay, "When man by death of all things is bereft, "If he leaves fortune, or by fortune's left § ? "Fortune to Galba's door the diadem brought; "The door was clos'd and other fons the fought: "Fortune's a woman, over fond or blind; "A step dame now, and now a mother kind. "Eichew the luft of pow'r, and pride of life; "One jarring mafs of counter-working ftrife! "Vain hopes, which only idiot minds employ; "And fancy builds, for fancy to destroy! "All must be wretched who expect too much; "Life's chemic gold proves recreant to the touch. The man who fears, nor hopes for earthly things, "Difarms the tyrant, and looks down on kings: "Whilst the depending, craving, flatt'ring flave "Makes his own chain that drags him to the 66 grave." The goddess now, with mild and fober grace Inclining, look'd me fteafaft in the face. 46 Thy exile next fits heavy on thy mind; "Thy pomp, thy wealth, thy villas, left behind. "Ah, quit thefe nothings to the hungry tribe; "States cannot banish thee; they may profcribe. "The good man's country is is in ev'ry clime, "His God in ev'ry place, at ev'ry time; "In civiliz'd, or in barbarian lands, "Wherever virtue breathes, an altar ftands *. "A farther weakness in thy heart I read : "Thy prifon fhocks thee with unusual dread: "Dark folitude thy wav'ring mind appalls, Damp floors, and low hung roofs, and naked "walls. "Yet here the mind of Socrates could foar; And, being less than man, he rose to more. "With not to fee new hofts of clients wait "In rows fubmiffive through vaft rooms of ftate; "Nor, on the litter of coarie rushes spread, "Lament the abience of thy downy bed: "Nor grieve thou, that thy plunder'd books af "No confolation to their exil'd lord: [ford "Read thy own heart f; its motions nicely scan; "There's a fufficient library for man ‡. "And yet a nobler volume still remains; "The book of providence all truths contains: "For ever ufeful, and forever clear, "To all men open, and to all men near: By tyrants unfupprefs'd, untouch'd by fire; "Old as mankind, and with mankind t' expire f. "Next, what aggrieves thee moft, is lofs of fame, "And the chafte pride of a once spotless name: "Bat mark, my fon, the truths I fhall impart, "And give them on the tablets of thy heart: "The first keen ftroke th' unfortunate fhall find, "Is lofing the opinion of mankind || : Slander and accufation take their rife From thy declining fortunes, not thy vice. "How rarely is a poor man highly deem'd; "Or a rich upftart villain difefteem'd?"From chilly fhades the gnats of fortune run "To buz in heat, and twinkle in the fun; "Till heav'n (at heav'n's appointed feafon "kind,) [wind, "Sweeps off th' Egyptian plague with fuch at "That not one blood-fucker is left behind. "Boaft not, nor grieve at good or evit fame ¶: "Be true to God, and thou art ftill the fame. "Man cannot give thee virtues thou haft not, "Nor fteal the virtues thou haft truely got. "And what's th' applaufe of learning or of wit? Critis unwrite whate'er the author writ There are two lessons which God inftills every day into the faithful: The one is, to fee their own faults: The other is, to comprehend the Divine goodness. THOM. A KEMP. The best looking glafs wherein to fee thy God, is perfectly to fee thyjelf. Huco de Anima. § L. I. Prof. 4. BOETIUS. At vero bic etiam noftris malis cumulus accedit, quod exiflimatio plurimorum non rerum merita, fed fortunæ fectat eventum: eaque tantum judicat effe provifa, que felicitas commendaverit. Quo fit, ut exiftimatio bona, prima omnium deferat infelices." BOETIUS, Ibid. Si vis beatus effe, cogi a boc primum, contemnere ei contemni, nondum es felix, fi te turba non deriferit. ANTISTHENES DiЯum, "To a new fate this fecond life muft yield, "And death will twice be master of the field *. Nor grieve, nor murmur, nor indulge despair, "To fee the villain cloth'd, and good man bare; "To fee impiety with pomp enthron'd; "Virtue unfought for, honefty unown'd :) "Heav'ns difpenfations no man can explore; "In this, to fathom God, is to be more! "Mere man but gueffes the divine decree; "The moft the Stagyrite himself could fee, "Was the faint glimm'ring of contingency. "Yet deem not rich men happy, nor the poor Unprofp'rous; wait th' event, and judge no "more. "True fafety to heav'n's children must belong : "With God the rich are weak, the poor are ftrong. "Th' irrevocable fanction ftands prepar'd; "Vice has its curfe, and virtue its reward t. "Confcience, man's centinel, forbids to ftray, "Nor fhows us the great gulph for heav'n's high 66 way. "To ferve the great, and aggrandife our pride, We barter honour, and our faith befide; "Mindlefs of future blifs, and heav'nly fame, "We ftrip and fell the Chriftian to the name. Ambition, like the fea, by tempefts toft, "Still makes new conquefts for old conquefts loft: "Court favours lie above the common road "By modefty and humble virtue trod; "Like trees on precipices, they display "Fair fruit, which none can reach but birds of (" prey. "All men from want, as from contagion, fly; "They weary earth, and importune the iky; "Gain riches, and yet 'fcape not poverty: "The once mean foul preferves its earthly part, "The beggar's flatt'ry, and the beggar's heart. "In fpite of titles, glory, kindred, pelf, "Lov'st thou an object better than thyfelf? "You answer, no.--If that, my fon, be true, "Then give to God the thanks to God are due. "No man is crown'd the fav'rite of the fkies "Till Heav'n his faith by fharp affliction tries: "Nor chains, difgrace, nor tyrants can controul "Th' ability to fave th' immortal fonl. "How oft did Seneca deplore his fate, "Debarr'd that recollection which you hate? "How often did Papinian wafte his breath * Cum fera vobis rapiet hoc etiam dies, Jam vos fecunda mors manet. BOETIUS, L. II. Metr. 7. ↑ Si ea quæ paulo ante conclufa funt, inconvulfa fequantur, ipfo, de cujus nunc regno loquimur, Auctore cognofces, femper quidem potentes bonos effe malos vero abjectos femper imbecilles; nec c fine pana unquam effe vitia, nec fine pramio virtutes; bonis felicia, malis femper infortunata contingere. BOETIUS L. IV. Prof 1. De Confolat. Philofoph. "Qui femina virtu, fama raccoglie" "Timplore, like your's, a pausing time for death? "Place in thy fight Heav'n's confeffors refign'd, "And fuffer with humility of mind: As thy profperities pafs'd swift away, Juft to thy grief fhall make a tranfient ftay t "Thy life's laft hour (nor is it far from thee) "Is the laft hour of human mifery. "Extremes of grief or joy are rarely giv'n, "And last as rarely, by the will of Heav'n." So fpake philofophy, and upwards flew, Infpiring confidence as the withdrew. Here let my juft refentments cease to flow, Here let me clofe my elegies of woe. Rufticiana, fairest of the fair, My prefent object, and my future care; Weep not my fate: is man to be deplor'd, Farewell, and may Heav'n's bounty heap on thee, (As more deferving) what it takes from me! That peace, which made thy focial virtues fhine," The peace of confcience, and the peace divine, Be ever, O thou beft of women, thine! Forgive, Almighty Pow'r, this worldly part; These laft convulfions of an husband's heart: Give us thy felf; and teach our minds to fee The Saviour and the Paraclete in thee.! IT is to be hoped the reader will pardon me, if I take the liberty of prefixing to this elegy a flight advertisement, inftead of inferting what might feem too long for a note in the body of the poem Having ventured (and I am fure it is licentia fumpta prudenter *) to introduce three or four new expreffions in a volume of near five thoufand lines, and one, namely, dew-ting'd ray, in the 279th page of the present elegy, I thought myself obliged to make fome apology on that fubject; fince all innovations in poets like me, (who can only pretend to a certain degree of mediocrity) are more or less of an affected caft, and rarely to be excufed; inafmuch as we have the vanity to teach others what we do not thoroughly underftand ourtelves. And here permit me to call that language of ours Claffical English, which is to be found in a few chofen writers inclufively, from the times of Spencer till the death of Mr. Pope; for falfe refinements, after a language has arifen to a certain degree of perfection, give reafons to fufpect that a language is upon the decline. The fame circumftances have happened formerly, and the event has been almost invariably the fame. Compare Statins and Claudian with Virgil and Horace: and yet the former was, if one may fo fpeak, im. mediate heir at law to the latter. I have known fome of my contemporary Poets (and thofe not very voluminous writers) who have coined their one or two hundred words a man; whereas Dryden and Pope devifed only about threescore words between them; many of which were compound epithets: But moft of the words which they introduced into our language, proved in the event to be vigorous and perennial plants, being chofen and raifed from excellent offsets f. -Indeed the former author revived alfo a great number of ancient words and exprellions; and this he did (beginning at Chaucer) with fo much delicacy of choice, and in a manner fo comprehentive, that he left the latter author (who was in that point equally judicious and fagacious) very little to do, or next to nothing. * HORAT. I must bere make one exception. Dryden fbowed jome weakness, in anglicizing common French words, and those not over elegant, when at the fame time we had fynonymous words of our own growth. Thus, for example, he introduced Some few of Dryden's revived words I have prefumed to contine; of which take the following inftances; as gridelien, filamot, and carmine, (with reference to colours, and mixtures of colours;) mar, eygre, trine, ETPHKA, Paraclete, panoply, rood, dorp, eglantine, orijens, fpirations, &c. I mention this, left any one thould be angry with me, or pleafed with me in particular places, where I difcover neither boldnefs nor invention. der'd; and to Sir W. Davenant the Latinism of --I owe alfo to Fenton the participle meanfuneral Illicet. menta As to compound epithets, thofe ambitiosse orna* of modern poetry, Dryden has deviled a few of them, with equal diffidence and caution; but those few are exquifitely beautiful. Mr. Pope feized on them as family diamonds, and added thereto an equal number, dug from his own mines, and heightened by his own polifhing. era. Compound epithets first came into their great vogue about the year 1598. Shakspeare and Ben. Johnfon both ridiculed the oftentatious and immoderate ufe of them, in their prologues to Troilus and Creffida, and to Every Man in his Humour. By the above named prologues it also appears, that Bombaft grew fashionable about the fame Now in both inftances an affected tafte is the fame as a falfe taite. The author of Hieroni. mo (who, as I may venture to affure the reader, was one John Sinith †) first led up the dance. Then came the bold and felf-fufficient tranflator of Du Bartas, who broke down all the floodmerly preferved the river clear, within due bounds, gates of the true stream of eloquence (which for and full to its banks) and like, the rat in the low country dikes, mifchieviously or wantonly deluged the whole land. Of innovated phrafes and words; of words re vived; of compound epithets, &c. I may one day or other fay more, in a distinct criticilin on Dryden's poetry. It fhall therefore only fuffice to obferve here, that our two great poetical mafters never thought that the interpofition of an hyphen, without juft grounds and reafons, made a compound epithet. On the contrary, it was their opinion, (and to this opinion their practice was conformable) that fuch union should only be made between two nouns, as patriot-king, ideotlaugh, &c. or between an adjective and noun, or noun and adjective, vice verja, or an adjective and participle; as laughter-loving, cloud compel levee, couchée, boutefeu, fimagres, fraicheur, ling, rofy-finger'd, &c.- -As alio by an adverb levé, couché, bouteleu, fimagres, fraicheur, fongue, &c Nor was he more lucky in the Italian fallaré bis fhield Was fulfify d, and round with jav'lins fill'd." DRYDEN'S Virg uied as part of an adjective, as you may fee in the words well-concocted, well-digested, &c.—But HORAT. t John Smith writ also the Hector of Germany. + Joshua Sylvefter. of never by a full reai adverb and adjective, as inly- Much of the fame analogy by which Dryden Th' aerial choir, which fung fo foft and clear, In a word, fome few precautions of the prefent Shall not every one mourn that dwelleth therein? I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes tailed with ISAIAH XXXviii. 14. JER. xlvi. 46. Lord, has thy hand no mercy, and our woes But who can bear the ficknefs of the mind? The bint of this emblem is taken from our venera- Quarles's book, and the em lematical prints therein + Dan. iv. 34. Agreeably to this is a lovely piece of imagery in the "The earth mourneth and languifeeth; Lebanon is With him the weeping Pleiades conjoin, Banish their grief, or eafe their irksome load; * Ifaiah lix. 5. + South'd, a received term in aftrology. Job xxxviii. 31, 32. According to Scripture- The Star of bitterness, called Wormwood, Rev. vii. 10. Job xxxviii. 12. Luke i. 78. Avacoλh 15 0x85. as we can recollect. § Deut. xxviii. 66, 67. Why boat of reafon, and yet reafon ill? The fick lets happy, and yet happier live; Too often we complain-but flesh is weak; Silence would wafte us, and the heart would break. Behold yon rofe, the poor defpondent cries, Why was I born? Or wherefore born a man? Frror and truth; eternity and time!- Say, man, what vain pre-eminence is thine? Elfe, boafted knowledge, haplefs is thy curfe, Matth. vi. 28. + Concerning the cep of plants, fee an ingenious Lan treatif lately publifhed in Sweden. Pretical defiallion of a centaur. § Fob xvii. 14.-There is a remarkable poffage in the Palms upon this occafion, where the vorm takes place of the monarch: “O praife the Lord, ye mountains and all bills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beafts and ail cattle; worms and feathered frols; kings of the earth and all people; princes and judges of the world." PSALM cxlvii. 10. S plungint verfion. If we barber the flesh too much, we nourife an entry, if we defraud it of lare ful fernance, we defroy ST. GREGOR, Iloil good citizen. So Annas owns the miracle, and then (Wilfully blinded) perfecutes again *. To minds afflicted ever has been given A claim upon the patronage of Heav'n: (Whilt the world's idiots ev'ry thought employ With hopes to live and die without annoy). In the firft agonies of heart-ftruck grief, Heav'n to our parents typify'd relieft. Th' Almighty lent an car to Hannah's pray'rt, And blefs'd her with each blefling, in an heir: Whilft Hezekiah §, carneft in his caufe, Gain'd a fufpenfion of great nature's laws, And permaience to tinie;-For lo! the fun Retrac'd the journey he had lately run. Bu moft th' unhappy wretch, aggriev'd in Rais'd pity in the Saviour of mankind. [mind, He afk'd for peace; heav'n gave him its own red; Demons were dumb. and Legion difpoffeft. Wither'd with palfy'd blairs, the limbs refame Thy ftrength. O manhood, and, O youth, thy Syro-Phenicia's maiden re-enjoy'd [bloom! That equal mind, which Satan once deflroy'd "*. And, when the heav'nly Ephphathatt was spoke, The deaf-born heard, the dunib-born filence broke. Th' ethereal fluid mov'd, the fpeech return'd; No fpafms were dreaded, no defpondence mourn'. Then roufe, my foul, and bid the world adieu, Its maxims, wifdom, joys and glory too; SS Juft fo, the gen'rous falcon, long immur'd kind. |